Melvin's Place of BBQ: Huntsville restaurant has amazing barbecue and juke-joint vibe (gallery)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- The red and white building across
from the Glenwood Cemetery doesn't have a sign on it. Inside, no credit/debit
cards are accepted, and when I asked for a receipt, I got a handwritten note on
a torn-off piece of a menu.

Melvin's Place of BBQ's does have amazing barbecued ribs, pulled pork and chicken. Smoky. Deftly
cooked. Zippy but not trippy seasoning. Lean meat.

And the funky, down-home setting makes this an experience
you can't get at gleaming barbecue joints with chichi embellishments like cash
registers and central air conditioning.

Pulling up to Melvin's around noon on a Thursday, we could
tell we were in the right place by the address on one corner of the building
and the fact there was a sizable charcoal grill on the edge of the small
parking lot. A couple of old umbrella-outfitted tables with vintage-looking
floral tablecloths and velvet-seat chairs also dot the lot.

You take the door on the right, on the lower level to enter
Melvin's. Initially, we walked up a ramp to an upper door – neither entry was
labeled – but that one accesses the kitchen.

Walking into the restaurant you immediately notice this
doesn't look like a restaurant. It looks like a covert, late-night juke joint. Guitars,
amps and drums rest on a stage, and random piles of chairs on the other side
of the room, which is portioned off. (Turns out Melvin's hosts blues and
R&B artists on weekend nights starting at 8.)

No menu board in sight.

Opening a door at the top of the stairs behind a desk/counter,
Melvin Rogers, the proprietor, walked down to greet us and dug out some paper menus featuring the slogan "COME SEE WHAT THE FUSS IS ABOUT!!!"

Fifteen minutes later our food was on top of the long table
where we were sitting. Except a half-chicken ($5.00), which Melvin had to go back and retrieve off the grill with a spatula, returning to ask "Whose chicken?"

The half-chicken was gigantic. It looked more like a half-eagle
or half-ostrich. Melvin's chicken is grilled with apple wood chips in the mix,
and the meat on the half-chicken was
tender and really juicy. The sensible amount of sweet sauce covering it tasted like
it might have had a hint of cinnamon in it. The skin was a little chewy, but
that lack of crispiness might be due to the fact that it had to be pulled off
the grill a little quicker than Melvin said he typically would. (Apparently
he'd already been through quite a few chickens since opening at 9 a.m.)

The exterior of the chicken on the two chicken plates we
ordered ($9 with two sides) was much darker in color than the half-chicken
order, from being cooked longer, and the skin a tad crisper. The meat? Fall-off-the-bone
bodacious, perfectly cooked.

We also ordered a pork sandwich ($5), which was definitely a
meal unto itself, so the accompanying bag of potato chips went untouched. The
pile of smoky pulled-pork, pickles, slaw, mostly tomato-based and a
smidge vinegary sauce, and standard-issue picnic-bun merged into one. It was
messy. (Good thing Melvin's interior tables are outfitted with plentiful paper towel
dispensers). Heavy. And delish.

I went with the rib plate ($10 with two sides). Six meaty,
brontosaurus-sized ribs. More falling-off-the-bone action. Melvin's pulled pork
and ribs are cooked with hickory and pecan wood, and this clearly adds to the
meats' complex-yet-primal sapor.

The portion size of the large pork plate ($8.50, a small is
$7.50) was impressive. Definitely enough for two meals.

Need mass quantities? Pulled pork is $5 for a half-pound and
$9 for a pound; ribs are $25 for a slab and $15 for a half. Most days Melvin's
has fried pies, apple and peach, for $2.50 a pop. They were out of pies when we
dropped by – although another customer, an aspiring rapper, offered to buy one
of my female dining companions a pie. When I asked if he would like to buy me a pie, too, the rapper declined.

The three sides available at Melvin's are merely mortal. The
baked beans benefited from the presence of nice brown sugar, green pepper and
onion, but the sauce was thin. Likewise, the potato salad boasted a refreshing
zing, but the pieces of potato were diced super small. And the mayo-based slaw's
taste was muted. You have three beverage choices at Melvin's: Pepsi and
Mountain Dew in the can, or Aquafina bottled water.

Making conversation, Melvin mentioned he used to build race
cars in the building that now houses his restaurant. If you're a
barbecue aficionado, you'll definitely want to check out what he has under
the hood ... of that old charcoal grill out back.